28Jan13

Timbuktu, ancient trading town caught up in Mali's war

The Malian town of Timbuktu, recaptured from Islamist rebels by French and
Malian troops, is an ancient center of Islamic culture that grew rich in the 14th
and 15th centuries as a trading post for gold and salt crossing the Sahara.

Here are some facts about the town:

Timbuktu has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. Founded in
1100 by Tuareg nomads, it was once the richest town in the ancient empire of
Mali, whose wealth came from the trans-Saharan caravan trade.

Three of West Africa's oldest mosques, Djinguereber, Sankore and Sidi
Yahia, were built in the town during the 14th and early 15th centuries; its
libraries contain thousands of priceless manuscripts recording genealogies
and scientific theories, as well as intellectual arguments between scholars,
teachers and commentators.

Ansar Dine, the Islamist group that seized the town in April, declared
Timbuktu's shrines and mausoleums, sacred to moderate Sufi Muslims, to be
un-Islamic and idolatrous, and militants destroyed several of them. The
retreating Islamist rebel fighters also set fire to several buildings, including a
library containing thousands of manuscripts.

Tourism to the area was already suffering from security problems even
before the rebels took control. In November 2011, Islamist gunmen seized
three foreigners and killed a fourth on a street in Timbuktu in an attack claimed
by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The Scottish explorer Gordon Laing was the first European to arrive in
Timbuktu, in 1826, followed by the French explorer René-Auguste Caillie two
years later. The town was captured by the French in 1894, and in 1960
became part of the newly independent Republic of Mali.

[Source: Reuters, 28Jan13]

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